Southampton to Long Beach, California, USA via Lisbon,
Las Palmas, Rio de Janiero, Valparaiso, Callao, Balboa, Acapulco and
finally arrived in Long Beach, USA on the 9th December
1967.

Final Voyage:

27th February 1971

Long Beach Pier E to Pier J

Flag:

British

Port
of Registry:

Liverpool, England, UK

Original Owners / Operators:

Cunard Line, Liverpool, England, UK

Technical Statistics:

Length:

1,018 ft

Breadth:

118 ft

Draft:

39 ft

Gross Registered Tonnage:

81,235 tons

Power:

Single reduction geared steam
turbines driving four propellers

Propulsion:

Four propellers

Maximum Speed:

34 knots

Service Speed:

29 knots

Passengers & Crew:

776 Cabin class, 784 Tourist
class, 579 Third class

Technical Facts:

Signal
Letters: GBSS

IMO
Number:

Cost:
£5 million

The Queen Mary was built
in an age when Britain was respected throughout the world for producing
products of quality, factories across the country were employed to
craft the thousands of components that were needed. Many of the
mechanical items were produced locally, such as the four giant turbines
that were made by the John Brown works at Clydebank. Electric pumps
used for sewage, deck washing, refrigeration and fire purposes were
supplied by Drysdale's of Glasgow.

Kelvin, Bottomley and Baird, also from Glasgow, were responsible for
the huge compasses, whilst elsewhere in Britain her fittings and
furnishings were manufactured. She was modern and featured the most
up-to-date materials, and reflect the current fashion trends and she
was opulent in the extreme. Britons Limited of Kidderminster weaved her
fine quality carpets. Blankets were mostly made by Priestly Brothers of
Halifax. In St Albans clocks of every description were made for the
ship. In London, Waring & Gillows built much of the furniture and
wood panelling. Around 200 firms contributed to the Queen Mary. In
total some 6 miles of carpets and rugs were laid in the public rooms
and staterooms, together with 13 miles of fabric for bedspreads,
curtains and covers and a further 500,000 pieces of linen, including
30,000 sheets and 31,000 pillow cases. Additionally there were 200,000
pieces of glass, china and earthenware and 16,000 items of cutlery and
table-ware. (Although many pieces of the latter were transferred to the
Queen Mary from the Mauretania when that she was retired from service
and scrapped).

The Queen Mary was fitted with huge single reduction geared steam
turbines driving her four propellers.

Boilers:

The Queen Mary had 24 watertube boilers. These were equally divided in
four boiler rooms. She additionally was fitted
with three double ended "Scotch" boilers in their own compartment to
provide low pressure steam
for the ship's hotel services including heating and cooking, whilst
10,000 KW of electricity, which would
be used to power the 22 lifts, 596 clocks and around 30,000 light
bulbs, was provided by 7 turbo-generators.

Propellers:

The Queen Mary had four giant propellers each weighing 35 tons. They
were produced by the Manganese Bronze & Brass Co. Ltd and they
measured 20 ft in diameter and were 10 tons heavier than any previously
used.

Speed:

The Queen Mary's normal cruising speed was 29 knots, while her maximum
speed was 34 knots.

Stabilisers:

In the 1958 the Queen Mary was fitted with four Denny Brown
stabilisers.

Each
stabiliser fin had an outreach
of 12 ft 6 inches and a width of 7 ft 3 inches. Both sets could be
extended and operated independently of the other so that only one set
need be operated in a moderate swell. Operated from the Bridge the
forward set had a righting moment of 11,500 ton/ft and the after set
exerted 14,000 ton/ft. It was calculated that a roll could be reduced
by 75% within a very short time.

The Queen Mary had the most comprehensive on-board telephone systems of
her day. Great attention was also paid to safety, indeed the ship was
equipped with the most up-to-date of automated systems; 66 watertight
doors were installed in bulkheads throughout the main areas of the ship
at the lower levels, 38 of which were power operated, controlled from a
central point on the Bridge. The position of these doors was shown on
an illuminated panel and when activated, in the case of a collision,
for example, they would have isolated a particular part of the ship.
Two hydraulic pumps, supplying fluid at a pressure of 700 lb per square
inch, actuated the movement of the doors, and for safety, each door had
a bell which rang approximately seven seconds before the closing
process began. Additionally, each door could be manually opened in case
someone became trapped in a sealed off area.

Fire is clearly a threat to the safety of any ocean going vessel and
the equipment for preventing, detecting and extinguishing fire on the
Queen Mary was the most comprehensive ever installed in a ship at that
time. From the design of light fittings and heaters, use of fire
retardant materials and paints wherever possible, every detail was
carefully considered. Areas of the ship which would be difficult to
patrol regularly, such as storerooms, cargo spaces, baggage rooms and
spaces for cars, were fitted with a sophisticated "Lux-Rich" smoke
detector system, which not only raised visual and audible alarms on an
indicator panel in the central fire station, but would pinpoint the
location in which the smoke had originated. The duty officers could
then respond by activating an equally sophisticated extinguishing
system which released CO2 into the appropriate compartment, which would
extinguish the flames by smothering them. Considering the Queen Mary
entered service in 1936, this system was far ahead of its time, and
even by today's standards it is quite remarkable.

In other parts of the ship, including passenger and crew accommodation,
stairways, corridors and all linen lockers, a sprinkler system was
installed, which was not only fully automated, but had sprinkler heads
which were operated independently of each other. The flow of water
through a sprinkler would automatically activate a fire alarm and show
its location on an indicator panel. In the case of the Queen Mary
thousands of square feet needed to be represented, and consequently the
indicator, with its plans of the 12 decks, measured 7 ft in both height
and width!

In addition there were over 200 conventional two-gallon fire
extinguishers and 313 lengths of fire hose, each one 60 ft long and 2.5
inches in diameter. There were further individual detector /
extinguisher systems designed to protect specific items and areas. One
such was the "Pyrene Automatic Film-fire Extinguisher" an example of
which protected each of the 7 on board projectors by discharging CO2
through the film track in the event of a fire. The vulnerable boiler
rooms were equipped with elaborate foam making devices, connected to
special hoses.

Strength:

The ship has an
extra thick steel hull for strength and stability for
Atlantic crossings.

Lifesaving Equipment:

The Queen Mary was the first liner to be fitted entirely with motorised
lifeboats, each of which could be single-handedly launched in less than
a minute thanks to the winding gear.

Whistle:

The Queen Mary has three huge "Tyfon" whistles, one on the second
funnel and a
pair in front of the forward funnel. Measuring 6 ft and 7 inches in
length and each weighin a ton, they were originally operated by steam
at a pressure of around 140 lb, per square inch. Their tone was pitched
to "A", two octaves below middle A of a piano. Their low, vibrant note
was one of the most far-carrying sounds ever devised and could be heard
10 miles away. They were manufactured by Kockums Ab of Sweden.